It varies country by country, but I'm pretty sure you'll find various aspects of humanity being celebrated on specific days (women, father/mother, workers, and so on), sometimes even at the UN level (i.e. theoretically worldwide). The point is to get mainstream attention to the achievements and problems of specific and necessary roles which would otherwise be mostly overlooked.

In some cases the celebration is named after the activity (e.g. fighting cancer), but meaning is exactly the same -- would calling it "Programming Day" suit you better?